Bush To Veto Hate Crime Bill Because Of Sexual Orientation Language?

The White House, in a statement warning of a veto, said state and local criminal laws already cover the new crimes defined under the bill, and there was “no persuasive demonstration of any need to federalize such a potentially large range of violent crime enforcement.”

It also noted that the bill leaves other classes, such as the elderly, the military and police officers, without similar special status.

“Our criminal justice system has been built on the ideal of equal justice for all,” said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, top Republican on the Judiciary Committee. “Under this bill justice will no longer be equal, but depend on the race, sex, sexual orientation, disability or status of the victim.”

Yeah, because all sorts of hate crimes are being perpetrated against the elderly and military folk. Lots of history of those people being killed just for being who they are.

And while we’re at it let’s go ahead and get fishermen in the bill too. Oh, and what about zoo keepers? What about the people who work for the gas company?

So…just FYI…

The Judiciary Committee cited FBI figures that there have been more than 113,000 hate crimes since 1991, including 7,163 in 1995. It said that racially motivated bias accounted for 55% of those incidents, religious bias for 17%, sexual orientation bias for 14% and ethnicity bias for 14%.

Nuf said?

UPDATE: Well, looks like the Dems offered to include seniors and the military in the bill.